Obedience In Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

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In 1963, a psychologist at Yale University took on an experiment that focused on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. The experiment proved, in a high number of cases, that no matter an individual’s personal conscience, that individual will be obedient to a person of higher rank even in the scene of causing harm to another human being. In the novel Lord of the Flies, author William Golding, presents the idea of obedience in human nature. Furthermore, by introducing the idea that obedience is a major point in human nature. Throughout life we all look for guidance and are taught to listen to people of higher rank rather than our own personal thoughts. In particular, it is expected of humans to be obedient to …show more content…

By proving his belief he broke it down to basics by taking out females, religion, and relationships. In a way, that changes the accuracy of obedience being a core part of human nature, but it majorly makes it easier to understand and less complicated. In the novel, obedience broke friendships, structure of society, and the children innocence. Golding was clear on showing the obedience in the children on this island, during the first meeting they appoint a chief immediately so that they will have someone to listen to and guide them. We do not always want to do things on our own, we look to an authority figure to tell us what to do and give us guidance and Golding proves this when he has the boys appoint a leader. Furthermore, Golding has created characters that represent the many different aspects of the human psyche which adds to the obedience factor in humanity. The children are more obedient to Jack, who is the more out of control, stern leader, by following him the children receive food and if they are not obedient to Jack then they do not receive food. This is a normal theme throughout life, we are obedient, even when we do not want to, just so that we get what we